Vignette
by alirodina
Summary: the rattle of the chains wakes Raito up in the middle of the night. just a little dribble.no pairing... except for a faint sense of shounen ai there....


Death Note: Vignette

Author's note: As it is with all of my other fanfics, this is not mine. Why I bothered to write this, I don't know. Perhaps it's a small thing to show off my obsession with one of the characters here. Perhaps I just wanted something short and one shot to take my mind off things. Either way, I try. By the way, if you would be killed by a death note, how would you want your death to be?

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The clinking of the chains.

He could hear it faintly, mingling with the louder sound of the teaspoon against the china cup as he stirred his weak tea. He raised his cup to sample the liquid, see if it was sweet enough, making the chains jangle more discordantly this time. Yagami Raito opened his eyes at the sound, narrowing his eyes against the glare of the screen in front of him even before he was fully awake. He watched as Ryuuzaki added more sugar cubes in his cup, handling the tongs between his thumb and forefinger, as he usually did. The former ran his free hand through his hair with a barely audible sigh.

There was a creak as Ryuuzaki swung his chair around to face him. " Did I wake you, Raito kun?" he was looking at the addressed with an expression akin to concern, but Raito knew him to well to deem it totally sincere. It was an innocent question that he asked now, but the other boy had the feeling that Ryuuzaki never did anything without good reason. His every movement and comment was calculated. But for what?

His expression betrayed nothing of what he was thinking now, but he was looking at Raito with calculating eyes, his cuffed hand stirring the tea in an absent manner. The long chain moved as his hand moved, the cold metal links making a faint tinkling noise. It was probably what had awakened him, Raito realized, shifting his gaze from his companion's to the cuffs that encircled his wrist. He could not bear the intensity of that stare. Ryuuzaki was sly. Not to speak of confusing.

" It's alright." He murmured, his temper rising, for all the assuring note in his voice. " Sleep is not that important, anyway." Was he getting paranoid? Not really, he decided. There was, after all, nothing to hide. He was convinced that L had been wrong in thinking that he was Kira. Unless he had, unknown to himself, indeed killed the criminals. He certainly possessed no memory of that. No. It was not that.

" But Raito kun doesn't need to stay up all night. Humans need rest, after all." he answered, taking a sip from his cup. The sweet liquid had already turned cold, but he ignored that, and drank on. " You have already done so much. You can sleep, if you want to." He placed the half empty cup back on the counter by his side, swiveling his chair around slightly, although his eyes never left Raito's face.

The latter shrugged, resisting the urge to aim a good strong punch at his companion's pale countenance. He wanted nothing more than Ryuuzaki to turn back to the glowing screen, for that pair of unfocused black eyes to leave him alone, but short of grabbing hold of those thin shoulders and turning him around, there was nothing he could do. And so, he did the best he could, and did nothing. " It's okay, really. And I don't get to sleep again that easily once I've awakened. I might as well do something useful in the while."

" If Raito kun says so." Ryuuzaki quipped, turning his back to Raito in a way that, had it been done by anyone but him would have been abrupt, and somewhat rude. But his companions was used to it. And the famous L had precious little morals anyway. Keeping in mind his unorthodox methods, and all that. But Raito liked the way the other boy respected human life. Which was more than could be said for Kira…

… and, if L was right… for him.

Stop it, Raito, he chided himself. This whole scenario is getting to you. He stood up, reaching for the sheaf of papers that his dad had left which was the hardcopy of all the recorded 'murders' Kira had committed. Now, think. Use that deductive reasoning for things other than self doubt.

Ryuuzaki's hand reached out at the same time for the box of chocolate filled, panda shaped biscuits propped beside the printed data, meeting Raito's halfway to his goal. Turning slightly to give his companion a puzzled look as Raito pulled his hand back with a frown, he said, in a tone that made it sound like a question " I'm sorry?"

" Sorry." Raito muttered, snatching the papers from the desk without rising to Ryuuzaki's subtle bait. He returned to his seat without explaining his behavior, because he could not explain it to himself, either. His long term proximity to Ryuuzaki was getting to him, he decided. Not being a sociable person, in any event, this whole ' being together 24/7' thing was wearing his patience thin. He had always valued his privacy, remembering vaguely the small traps he set in his room to be sure if anyone had entered while he was away. And spending every single minute of the day with someone he barely knew was certainly against his instincts. Not to speak of the fact that this person suspected him of killing an alarming amount of criminals. Of course he was jumpy.

Ryuuzaki bit at his biscuits absent mindedly, seemingly giving the glowing screen his undivided attention, when, for all Raito knew, his mind was traversing other, twisted paths.

" Ryuuzaki."

The addressed turned around slowly, almost reluctantly to face his lone companion. " Yes, Raito kun?"

" Don't you ever get tired?" he asked it as if it didn't really matter, which it didn't. But why would he ask if it didn't matter? Ryuuzaki was someone you didn't make small talk with. Although his conversation, if not related to the investigation, was not exactly uplifting in any sense. That was it, Ryuuzaki did not make sense.

" As Raito kun said, sleep is not that important, after all." Ryuuzaki lifted the corners of his lips in a way that could have been taken for a smile. He had taken to making a tower of the biscuits that he was eating, a sign that he was currently in deep thought. " Yet, it can be called a luxury one can afford only now and then, in short intervals of time."

He made a noncommittal sound, although what the other had said had made him think, so that Ryuuzaki could almost imagine the invisible cogs of Raito's brain whirring to digest the information, which was not important at all. Possibly, they were sinking to trivialities. Which wasn't good. Raito was not sure that being familiar with Ryuuzaki would help matters any. More probably, it would complicate things a lot.

" Do you want some, Raito kun?" he turned around to look at Ryuuzaki as he offered him some of the biscuits aforementioned.

" Thanks." He took one, and the creamy sweetness of the chocolate had already filled his mouth when he thought about it.

He realized Ryuuzaki had never offered his sweets to anyone of them before.

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I assure you that eating Hello Pandas there is no allusion to sex. : maniacal smile : if I had wanted you to think so, I would have written it. I like the senselessness of this fic. At least it left a warm feeling inside me that is so symbolic of FLUFFINESS.

Anyway for the record: I want a slow and conscious peaceful death……. in the Sistine Chapel!

Please read, answer the question, and most importantly, review. My fate is in your hands. But please bear in mind that I might possess a death note….


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